Quote Originally Posted by Robot_Butler View Post
You're right. We can embrace dreams without having to control them. I do, however, think control can help us learn to deal with some of the more difficult aspects of ourselves. In a lucid dream, we can master things that we are unable to control in real life. It is an empowering feeling to face your greatest fears in a nightmare and watch them disappear. It is a different experience from waking up and later telling yourself, "It was only a nightmare."

I think you are confusing control with lucidity. Lucid dreaming is not all about controlling your dreams. It is about learning to be aware of your dreams while they are happening. I think that is freedom. You can learn to stop being controlled by your random subconscious thoughts. You can free yourself from those cyclic thought patterns that hog your attention during both the day and night.
It is great having this conversation I'm sure your getting a kick out of it.

But the fear wouldn't exist if it wasn't a fear through the our cognitive process? This starts to step into sociopathology (which I believe are different stages and the dsm isn't all correct). Embracing it without control, if done enough time will shift a person's view on it. They will become desensitized. But if one control is a mean to advert the problem, while I agree creates a great satisfaction of beating the nightmare, or what have you, something else will enviably come (whether in the form of dreams or other part in life).